Saturday, January 17, 2009

To anyone who is still reading my blog. I will go back to putting up at least one post a day on Monday. Sorry I haven't been doing a very good job of staying updated lately. I'll probably also start cross-posting with Conservatism Today and Patriot Room. To try and drive up my traffic again. Anyone got a clue when RealClearPolitics is going to start accepting Reader Articles again?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I came across this article while surfing the web today. Finally someone has the courage to tell the truth about this administrations actions. Too bad this article was published in England.

By Andrew Roberts

The American lady who called to see if I would appear on her radio programme was specific. "We're setting up a debate," she said sweetly, "and we want to know from your perspective as a historian whether George W Bush was the worst president of the 20th century, or might he be the worst president in American history?" "I think he's a good president," I told her, which seemed to dumbfound her, and wreck my chances of appearing on her show.

In the avalanche of abuse and ridicule that we are witnessing in the media assessments of President Bush's legacy, there are factors that need to be borne in mind if we are to come to a judgment that is not warped by the kind of partisan hysteria that has characterised this issue on both sides of the Atlantic.

The first is that history, by looking at the key facts rather than being distracted by the loud ambient noise of the 24-hour news cycle, will probably hand down a far more positive judgment on Mr Bush's presidency than the immediate, knee-jerk loathing of the American and European elites.

At the time of 9/11, which will forever rightly be regarded as the defining moment of the presidency, history will look in vain for anyone predicting that the Americans murdered that day would be the very last ones to die at the hands of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists in the US from that day to this.

The decisions taken by Mr Bush in the immediate aftermath of that ghastly moment will be pored over by historians for the rest of our lifetimes. One thing they will doubtless conclude is that the measures he took to lock down America's borders, scrutinise travellers to and from the United States, eavesdrop upon terrorist suspects, work closely with international intelligence agencies and take the war to the enemy has foiled dozens, perhaps scores of would-be murderous attacks on America. There are Americans alive today who would not be if it had not been for the passing of the Patriot Act. There are 3,000 people who would have died in the August 2005 airline conspiracy if it had not been for the superb inter-agency co-operation demanded by Bush after 9/11.

The next factor that will be seen in its proper historical context in years to come will be the true reasons for invading Afghanistan in October 2001 and Iraq in April 2003. The conspiracy theories believed by many (generally, but not always) stupid people – that it was "all about oil", or the securing of contracts for the US-based Halliburton corporation, etc – will slip into the obscurity from which they should never have emerged had it not been for comedian-filmmakers such as Michael Moore.

Instead, the obvious fact that there was a good case for invading Iraq based on 14 spurned UN resolutions, massive human rights abuses and unfinished business following the interrupted invasion of 1991 will be recalled.

Similarly, the cold light of history will absolve Bush of the worst conspiracy-theory accusation: that he knew there were no WMDs in Iraq. History will show that, in common with the rest of his administration, the British Government, Saddam's own generals, the French, Chinese, Israeli and Russian intelligence agencies, and of course SIS and the CIA, everyone assumed that a murderous dictator does not voluntarily destroy the WMD arsenal he has used against his own people. And if he does, he does not then expel the UN weapons inspectorate looking for proof of it, as he did in 1998 and again in 2001.

Mr Bush assumed that the Coalition forces would find mass graves, torture chambers, evidence for the gross abuse of the UN's food-for-oil programme, but also WMDs. He was right about each but the last, and history will place him in the mainstream of Western, Eastern and Arab thinking on the matter.

History will probably, assuming it is researched and written objectively, congratulate Mr Bush on the fact that whereas in 2000 Libya was an active and vicious member of what he was accurately to describe as an "axis of evil" of rogue states willing to employ terrorism to gain its ends, four years later Colonel Gaddafi's WMD programme was sitting behind glass in a museum in Oakridge, Tennessee.

With his characteristic openness and at times almost self-defeating honesty, Mr Bush has been the first to acknowledge his mistakes – for example, tardiness over Hurricane Katrina – but there are some he made not because he was a ranting Right-winger, but because he was too keen to win bipartisan support. The invasion of Iraq should probably have taken place months earlier, but was held up by the attempt to find support from UN security council members, such as Jacques Chirac's France, that had ties to Iraq and hostility towards the Anglo-Americans.

History will also take Mr Bush's verbal fumbling into account, reminding us that Ronald Reagan also mis-spoke regularly, but was still a fine president. The first MBA president, who had a higher grade-point average at Yale than John Kerry, Mr Bush's supposed lack of intellect will be seen to be a myth once the papers in his Presidential Library in the Southern Methodist University in Dallas are available.

Films such as Oliver North's W, which portray him as a spitting, oafish frat boy who eats with his mouth open and is rude to servants, will be revealed by the diaries and correspondence of those around him to be absurd travesties, of this charming, interesting, beautifully mannered history buff who, were he not the most powerful man in the world, would be a fine person to have as a pal.

Instead of Al Franken, history will listen to Bob Geldof praising Mr Bush's efforts over Aids and malaria in Africa; or to Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India, who told him last week: "The people of India deeply love you." And certainly to the women of Afghanistan thanking him for saving them from Taliban abuse, degradation and tyranny.

When Abu Ghraib is mentioned, history will remind us that it was the Bush Administration that imprisoned those responsible for the horrors. When water-boarding is brought up, we will see that it was only used on three suspects, one of whom was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda's chief of operational planning, who divulged vast amounts of information that saved hundreds of innocent lives. When extraordinary renditions are queried, historians will ask how else the world's most dangerous terrorists should have been transported. On scheduled flights?

The credit crunch, brought on by the Democrats in Congress insisting upon home ownership for credit-unworthy people, will initially be blamed on Bush, but the perspective of time will show that the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac started with the deregulation of the Clinton era. Instead Bush's very un-ideological but vast rescue package of $700 billion (£480 billion) might well be seen as lessening the impact of the squeeze, and putting America in position to be the first country out of recession, helped along by his huge tax-cut packages since 2000.

Sneered at for being "simplistic" in his reaction to 9/11, Bush's visceral responses to the attacks of a fascistic, totalitarian death cult will be seen as having been substantially the right ones.

Mistakes are made in every war, but when virtually the entire military, diplomatic and political establishment in the West opposed it, Bush insisted on the surge in Iraq that has been seen to have brought the war around, and set Iraq on the right path. Today its GDP is 30 per cent higher than under Saddam, and it is free of a brutal dictator and his rapist sons.

The number of American troops killed during the eight years of the War against Terror has been fewer than those slain capturing two islands in the Second World War, and in Britain we have lost fewer soldiers than on a normal weekend on the Western Front. As for civilians, there have been fewer Iraqis killed since the invasion than in 20 conflicts since the Second World War.

Iraq has been a victory for the US-led coalition, a fact that the Bush-haters will have to deal with when perspective finally – perhaps years from now – lends objectivity to this fine man's record.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Trying to make everyone love you is the best way to be sure that no one does. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago and yet one our President elect still needs to learn. I just saw this article on foxnews.com saying that Obama has asked the first openly gay bishop to say a prayer during one of the inaugration events. He's also asked Rick Warren who supported the gay marriage ban in California to give the invocation. What's more likely the people that support Warren will be happy and the people Robinson will be happy, or that no one will be happy. I'd say the latter is more likely. On the one hand you have an openly gay bishop, something many Christians believe is a contradiction in terms, leading a prayer. On the other hand you have an anti-gay pastor (their words not mine) giving the invocation. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/12/gay-bishop-say-prayer-inaugural-event/

Let's see can I find other examples of Obama trying to make everyone happy in the past? Yes I can. In fact we can start with his kindergarten teacher who said "Obama is always trying to make everybody happy." So basically this is a lifelong problem he's had.

Obama also tried to make everyone happy during the campaign by saying he was for gun bans then praising the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the D.C. gun ban. Here's the video.

Another example Obama voted for the 2005 Energy bill, but spent the campaign railing against it. The bill passed the senate with a 74-26 vote. However when it came time to campaign Obama railed against the now unpopular Bush-Cheney Energy Bill. So when it was popular Obama was for it, but when it was unpopular Obama rails against the bill.

Remember when Obama promised to filibuster the Telecom commuications bill during the primaries. "To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." However when the bill came to a vote after he had won the nomination he did nothing. He actually voted for the bill.

So let me get this straight Obama your plan is to make everyone in the country hate you? I know that's not the plan, but that will be the end result if Barack Obama keeps trying to make everyone happy. Of course he will keep trying this tact because this is what liberals do. They try to make everyone happy. Elect me and I'll give you everything for free. However what most of us know is everything comes with a price. Sometimes you pay for it then and other times you pay for it later. The question isn't if Obama's presidency will cost this country something it's when will we have to pay and how much?

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About Me

A college graduate with a BA in History and a minor in politics from Coastal Carolina University. Has a student at Coastal Carolina I Chaired the College Republicans for two years. I volunteered for Mike Huckabee's Presidential campaign in 2008.
I worked as an intern for the South Carolina Republican Party in 2009.